1000 Most Common Last Names in Chile

Spanish (González): patronymic from the personal name Gonzalo, a personal name of Visigothic origin, based on the Germanic element gunþ ‘battle’. Compare Portuguese Gonçalves (see Goncalves).

Spanish: habitational name from places in Burgos or Lugo (Galicia) named Rojas, from a derivative of rojo ‘red’.

Spanish (Díaz): patronymic from the medieval personal name Didacus (see Diego).

Spanish (Pérez) and Jewish (Sephardic): patronymic from the personal name Pedro, Spanish equivalent of Peter. Jewish: variant of Peretz.

habitational name from any of numerous places named Soto or El Soto, from soto ‘grove’, ‘small wood’ (Latin saltus). Castilianized spelling of Asturian-Leonese Sotu, a habitational name from a town so named in Asturies. Castilianized spelling of the Galician equivalent, Souto.

Spanish: habitational name from Conteraras, a place in the province of Burgos. The place name is derived from Late Latin contraria ‘surrounding area’, ‘region’ (from the preposition contra ‘opposite’, ‘against’, ‘hard by’).

Portuguese, Galician, and Jewish (Sephardic): habitational name from any of the many places called Silva, or a topographic name from silva ‘thicket’, ‘bramble’.

Spanish (Martínez): patronymic from the personal name Martin.

Comes from 'Sepultador de Vidas': 'one that buries life', meaning that its origins are in the gravedigger profession.

Spanish: topographic name from the plural of moral ‘mulberry tree’.

Spanish (Rodríguez) and Portuguese: patronymic from the personal name Rodrigo.

Spanish (López): patronymic from the medieval personal name Lope (from Latin lupus ‘wolf’). This is one of the commonest of all Spanish surnames.

Castilianized form of Basque and Catalan Araia, a habitational name from any of various places called Araia, for example in Araba, Basque Country, and Catelló de la Plana, Valencia. Spanish: habitational name from any of the places called Araya, as for example the one in Canary Islands. Japanese: meaning ‘wild valley’ or ‘new valley’; found in eastern Japan and pronounced Aratani in western Japan. Neither version is particularly common.

Spanish: habitational name from any of numerous places named with fuentes, plural of fuente ‘spring’, ‘well’ (see Fuente), as for example Fuentes (Cuenca, Albacete, and Segovia provinces), Fuentes Calientes (Teruel), Fuentes de León (Badajoz), Fuentes de Valdepero (Palencia).

Spanish (Hernández) and Jewish (Sephardic): patronymic from the personal name Hernando (see Fernando). This surname also became established in southern Italy, mainly in Naples and Palermo, since the period of Spanish dominance there, and as a result of the expulsion of the Jews from Spain and Portugal at the end of the 15th century, many of whom moved to Italy.

Galician, Catalan, Spanish, Portuguese, and Jewish (Sephardic): habitational name from any of the numerous places named Torres, all named with the plural of torre ‘tower’ (see Torre). Italian: habitational name from Torres in Belluno or Porto Torres in Sassari. In southern Italy the surname is sometimes a borrowing from Spanish (see 1). Dutch: from a short form of Victoris, from the Latin personal name Victorius.

South American spelling of Spanish Espinosa; the spelling with -z- represents a voiced pronunciation heard in some Latin-American countries, whereas in Castilian Spanish it now has an unvoiced -s-.

Spanish: from the plural of flor ‘flower’.

Spanish: from castillo ‘castle’, ‘fortified building’ (Latin castellum), a habitational name from any of numerous places so named or named with this word.

Spanish: habitational name from places named Valenzuela in Córdoba and Ciudad Real. The place name is a diminutive of Valencia, literally ‘Little Valencia’.

Spanish (Ramírez): patronymic from the personal name Ramiro, composed of the Germanic elements ragin ‘counsel’ + mari, meri ‘fame’.

plural variant of Rey. Castilianized form of the Galician habitational name Reis.

Spanish (Gutiérrez): patronymic from the medieval personal name Gutierre, from a Visigothic personal name of uncertain form and meaning, perhaps a compound of the elements gunþi ‘battle’ + hairus ‘sword’.

Galician, Portuguese, Italian, and Jewish (Sephardic): topographic name from castro ‘castle’, ‘fortress’ (Latin castrum ‘fort’, ‘Roman walled city’): in Galicia and also in northern Portugal a habitational name from any of various places named with this word; in Italy either a topographic name or a habitational name.

Spanish and Portuguese: habitational name from Vargas in Santander province, or a topographic name from vargas, plural of varga, a dialect term used in various senses: ‘(thatched) hut’, ‘steep slope’, or ‘fenced pastureland which becomes waterlogged in winter’.

Spanish (Álvarez): from a patronymic form of the personal name Álvaro (see Alvaro).

Galician and possibly also Spanish: patronymic from the personal name Vasco, reduced form of Spanish Velásquez (see Velasquez).

This could be onomatopoeic Spanish for the sound "tap."Found in Asturias. Name of villages near Leon and Oviedo. Derived from word "toppa" meaning a wall made from mud.Basque word meaning a place of the cranberries.Castilian name.

Spanish (Fernández): patronymic from the personal name Fernando. The surname (and to a lesser extent the variant Hernandez) has also been established in southern Italy, mainly in Naples and Palermo, since the period of Spanish dominance there, and as a result of the expulsion of the Jews from Spain and Portugal at the end of the 15th century, many of whom moved to Italy.

Spanish (Sánchez): patronymic from the personal name Sancho.

Spanish (Cortés), Catalan (Cortès), and Portuguese (Cortês): from cortés ‘courteous’, ‘polite’, a derivative of corte (see Corte), a nickname for a refined person, sometimes no doubt given ironically. Spanish and Portuguese (Cortes): habitational name from any of numerous places in Spain and Portugal named with cortes, plural of corte ‘court’.

Spanish (Gómez): from a medieval personal name, probably of Visigothic origin, from guma ‘man’. Compare Gomes.

Spanish and Jewish (Sephardic): habitational name from villages so called in the provinces of Seville and Badajoz, from a word meaning ‘iron smithy’, ‘blacksmith’s forge’ (a derivative of hierro ‘iron’, Latin ferrum). French: habitational name from the Gascon form of Ferrière, a place in Pyrénées-Atlantique. The place name is derived from Latina ferraria ‘iron-mine’, ‘iron-forge’.

Spanish: topographic name from carrasco, carrasca ‘holm oak’ (from Latin cerrus, from a pre-Roman Celtiberian word), or a habitational name from any of various places named with this word, as for example Carrasco in Salamanca province or Casas Carrasco in Jaén province, Spain.

Spanish, Portuguese, and Jewish (Sephardic): habitational name from any of numerous places in Spain and Portugal called Miranda. The derivation of the place name is uncertain; it may be of pre-Roman origin, or from Latin miranda ‘view’, ‘outlook’. This name is also found in western India, where it was taken by Portuguese colonists.

Spanish: habitational name any of the various places in southern Spain named Jara or La Jara, from jara ‘rockrose’, ‘cistus’.

Basque: Castilianized variant of Basque Bergara, a habitational name from places so called (earlier Virgara) in the provinces of Gipuzkoa and Navarre. The place name is of uncertain derivation; the second element is gara ‘hill’, ‘height’, ‘eminence’, but the first has not been satisfactorily identified.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the places named Rivera, a variant of Ribera. Italian: northern variant of the southern (especially Sicily) topographic name Ribera. Catalan: in some cases, variant of Catalan Ribera.

Galician: habitational name from any of the places in Galicia named Figueroa, from a derivative of figueira ‘fig tree’.

Spanish (García) and Portuguese: from a medieval personal name of uncertain origin. It is normally found in medieval records in the Latin form Garsea, and may well be of pre-Roman origin, perhaps akin to Basque (h)artz ‘bear’.

Spanish and Portuguese: nickname from bravo ‘fierce’, ‘violent’, ‘courageous’ (from Latin barbarus ‘barbarian’, ‘ruffian’).

Spanish: from a Germanic personal name composed of the elements ric ‘power(ful)’ + helm ‘helmet’, ‘protection’.

Spanish (especially southern Spain): habitational name from any of various places called Vera or La Vera, named with vera ‘river bank’.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the numerous places named Vega or La Vega, from vega ‘meadow’ (of pre-Roman origin, probably originally denoting irrigated land).

Spanish and Catalan: habitational name from any of numerous places named Molina, in particular the one in Guadalajara province.

Portuguese: topographic name from campos ‘fields’, denoting someone who lived in the countryside as opposed to a town.

One who came from Sandoval, in Spain.The latin "sancto-vallis" - holy valley - provides the meaning of this surname. One who dwells in a holy valley.Castilian name from political subdivision of Villadiego (Burgos), and descended from Count Fernán-González.

Spanish: habitational name from any of several places named Olivares, from the plural of Spanish olivar ‘olive grove’. Compare Oliveira. The Spanish surname spread into Italy, becoming widespread in Milan and the Naples region.

Spanish: habitational name from either of two places in Badajoz province, probably so called from Latin villa Aureliana ‘estate of Aurelius’ (see Orell).

Spanish: patronymic from the Basque personal name Orti (Latin Fortunius).

Gallardo is a word originally used after a name to distinguish between others of the same name which eventually developed into a surname. It means "elegant, graceful."Refers to someone who is full of life and valiant and probably comes from the latin "galleus" which has a similar meaning.

Spanish (Alarcón): habitational name, most probably from Alarcón in Cuenca province.

Spanish and Portuguese: nickname from Spanish, Portuguese garrido ‘elegant’, ‘handsome’, ‘comely’.

Spanish: habitational name from a place called Salazar in Burgos, probably named with sala ‘hall’ + Basque za(h)ar ‘old’, and thus a Basque equivalent of Saavedra. Spanish: Castilianized variant of Basque Zaraitzu, a habitational name from a town so named in Navarre.

Spanish: from pizarra ‘slate’, hence a topographic name for someone who lived near a slate quarry or occupational name for someone who worked in one.

Spanish: habitational name from a place in Soria province, named Aguilera from aguilera ‘eagle’s nest’ (from Latin aquilaria ‘place of eagles’).

Galician: habitational name from any of the places in the Galician provinces of Ourense and Lugo named Saavedra, from saa ‘hall’ (from Gothic sals ‘main house’) + vedro ‘old’ (Latin vetus).

Spanish: nickname from romero ‘pilgrim’, originally ‘pilgrim to Rome’ (see Romeo).

Spanish (Guzmán): of uncertain and disputed etymology, probably from a Germanic personal name. Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): variant of Gusman.

Spanish (Henríquez): variant of Enríquez (see Enriquez).

Spanish, Italian, and Jewish (Sephardic) (of Basque origin): regional name denoting someone from Navarre (see Navarra).

Galician: habitational name from Godoy, a place in Galicia. The origin of the place name is uncertain, but a connection has been suggested with the Gothic elements gu{dh}s ‘god’ + wihs ‘saint’.

Spanish (Cáceres): habitational name from the city of Cáceres in Estremadura, named with the plural of Arabic al-qa?sr ‘the citadel’.

Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese, and Galician: from parra ‘vine bower’, ‘trellis’, a topographic name or a habitational name from any of the places named with this word.

Spanish: habitational name a place called Leiva, chiefly the one in La Rioja province and to a lesser extent the one in Murcia.

Spanish: topographic name for someone who lived in a place overgrown with broom, from a collective form of escoba ‘broom’ (Late Latin scopa), or a habitational name from any of the various places named with this word: for example, Escobar de Campos (León), Escobar de Polendos (Segovia), and three minor places in Murcia.

Asturian-Leonese and Spanish (Valdés): habitational name from either of the two places called Valdés in Málaga and Asturies. Catalan (Valdès): nickname from Catalan valdès ‘Waldensian’, i.e. a member of a Puritan religious sect which was founded in the 12th century by Peter Valdes (died 1205) in southern France. The widespread distribution of the surname in present-day Spain, however, suggests that other sources may also have been involved.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the numerous places named Salinas, from the plural of salina ‘saltworks’ (Latin salinae, a derivative of sal ‘salt’).

Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese, northern Italian, French, and English: from the personal name, a derivative of the Latin personal name Vitalis (see Vitale).

Spanish (Jiménez): patronymic from the medieval personal name Jimeno, which is of pre-Roman origin.

Spanish, Galician, and Portuguese: habitational name from any of the numerous places named Lagos, especially in Galicia. Greek: nickname for a timid person or a fast runner, from Greek lagos ‘hare’, or a reduced form of a patronymic based on such a nickname, such as Lagoudakis.

Spanish: patronymic from the personal name Ruy, a short formnof Rodrigo. DK, kh, RS

Spanish (Cárdenas): habitational name from places in the provinces of Almería and Logroño named Cárdenas, from the feminine plural of cárdeno ‘blue’, ‘bluish purple’ (Late Latin cardinus, from carduus ‘thistle’). Presumably the noun tierras ‘lands’ is to be understood, and the reference is to land covered with bluish plants, such as thistles or vines.

Spanish, Asturian-Leonese, and Galician: topographic name from the plural of busto ‘meadow’, ‘willow’, or a habitational name from either of the places so named, in León and Galicia (see Busto).

Spanish: habitational name from any of the several places, as for example Medina-Sidonia in Cádiz province and Medina del Campo in Valladolid, so called from Arabic medina ‘city’. The surname is also borne by Sephardic Jews.

nickname for an ugly or stupid person, from Spanish mal donado ‘ill-favored’. The phrase is a compound of mal ‘badly’ + donado ‘given’, ‘endowed’, past participle of donare ‘to give’, ‘to bestow’. habitational name from Maldonado, a village in the province of Albacete.

Galician and Spanish: habitational name from any of the places in Galicia named Pino, from pino ‘pine’, or topographic name for somebody who lived by a remarkable pine tree. Italian: habitational name from Pino d’Asti in Asti province, Pino Torinese in Torino, or Pino Solitario in Taranto, all named with pino ‘pine’. Italian: from the personal name Pino, a short form Giuseppino (from Giuseppe), Filippino (from Filippo), Jacopino (from Jacopo), or some other pet name formed with this suffix.

Spanish, Portuguese, and Jewish (Sephardic): nickname for someone with dark hair and a swarthy complexion, from Spanish and Portuguese moreno ‘dark-haired’, a word of uncertain origin, probably from Late Latin maurinus, a derivative of classical Latin Maurus ‘Moor’. Compare Moore 2.

Spanish: topographic name for someone who lived near an oak grove, from a collective noun derivative of carvallo ‘oak’, or a habitational name from a place so named, for example in Málaga province. Compare Carbajal.

Spanish, Catalan, Galician, Portuguese, and southern Italian: habitational name from any of various places named or named with Palma, from Latin palma ‘palm’. Portuguese: habitational name for someone from Parma in Italy.

Spanish: habitational name from Poblete in the province of Ciudad Real.

Spanish and Aragonese (of Basque origin): habitational name from any of the places in La Rioja, Aragon, and Basque Country named Navarrete, from Basque (spoken in all those areas in pre-Roman times) Nafarrete ‘plateau between two small valleys’, a derivative of naba (see Nava, Navarra).

S AN EZ Origen Y Significado El apellido Sáez se ha incluido en el grupo de los apellidos patronímicos, es decir, de aquellos que derivan del nombre propio de la persona que en un momento histórico determinado adoptan el nombre como apellido.

Spanish: habitational name from Toro in Zamora province, called Campos Gotorum in the Middle Ages. Spanish: nickname from toro ‘bull’ (usually in the form Del Toro). Italian: nickname for a lusty person or a metonymic occupational name for a tender of bulls, from Italian toro ‘bull’ (Latin taurus). Italian: from a short form of the personal name Ristoro. Estonian or Finnish: unexplained.

Spanish: nickname from donoso ‘graceful’.

Spanish (from Galician): habitational name from Ortega in A Coruña province. Spanish: nickname from ortega ‘(female) black grouse’ (from Greek ortyx ‘quail’). Southern French (Occitan): topographic name from Occitan ortiga ‘nettle’ (Latin urtica, French ortie).

Spanish: patronymic from Arabic or Jewish ben ‘son’ + the medieval personal name Ega(s), probably of Visigothic origin. Compare Portuguese Viegas.

Spanish: habitational name from Bustamante in Santander province, so named with Late Latin bustum Amantii ‘pasture (see Busto) of Amantius’, a personal name derived from Late Latin Amans, genitive Amantis, meaning ‘loving’.

Spanish: habitational name from a place in Badajoz province called Alvarado.

Spanish (Castilian and Galician): topographic name from Old Spanish acebedo, azevedo ‘holly grove’ (from azevo ‘holly’ + -edo ‘plantation’). This name is common in Tenerife.

Portuguese (and Spanish): apparently a plural form of Faria. Southern Italian: topographic name from Greek pharias, a derivative of pharos ‘beacon’, ‘lighthouse’.

Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian: nickname for an aggressive person or for a soldier, from an agent derivative of guerra ‘war’. Compare Guerra.

Spanish and Portuguese: from cerda ‘bristle’, ‘hair’ (Late Latin cirra), apparently a nickname for someone with a prominent tuft of hair. One of the sons of King Alfonso X (1221–84) was known as Fernando de la Cerda. Catalan (Cerdà): regional name, cerdà, for someone from La Cerdanya, a Catalan district in the Pyrenees which is currently situated partly in Spain and partly in France.

Spanish and Jewish (Sephardic): nickname from pinto ‘colorful’, ‘painted’. Spanish: habitational name from Pinto in Madrid. Catalan (Pintó): Catalan variant of Pintor ‘painter’. Portuguese: from a nickname from pinto ‘chick’. This name is also common in western India, where it was taken by Portuguese colonists. Italian: from pinto ‘mottled’, ‘dotted’ (Late Latin pinctus, for classical Latin pictus ‘painted’), hence a nickname for a person with a blotchy or pock-marked complexion or pepper-and-salt hair, or in some parts of the south at least from the same word in the sense ‘lively or restless person’.

Spanish, Galician and Portuguese: topographic name for someone who lived in a lean-to built against the wall of a larger building, from Spanish pared, Portuguese and Galician parede ‘(house) wall’. Servants often lived in buildings of this sort outside manor houses, and masons constructed huts of this kind on the site of their labors, making temporary use of the walls of the new building. There are also numerous places named with this word, and the surname may also be a habitational name from any of these.

Spanish: probably a variant of Quesada.

Spanish and Jewish (Sephardic): habitational name from the city in central Spain, which was the capital of the Visigothic state between the 6th and 8th centuries. Its role declined for three centuries after the Muslim invasion of Spain, until it was taken as the capital of the kingdom of Castile between the 11th and 16th centuries. It was a major cultural and political center throughout the Middle Ages, and was also the home of an important Jewish community. The place name, first recorded in Latin as Toletum, is of obscure etymology, possibly connected with Toleto in Piedmont; Jewish tradition connects it with Hebrew toledot ‘generations’, but this is no more than folk etymology.

Spanish: topographic name for someone who lived by a dogwood tree, Spanish cornejo (Latin corniculus), or a habitational name from any of the various minor places named Cornejo, for example in the provinces of Almería, Burgos, and Ciudad Real.

Portuguese, Spanish, and Catalan (Móra): habitational name from any of the places named Mora, in some cases from mora ‘mulberry’ (Late Latin mora, originally the plural of classical Latin morum). Occitan and Catalan (Morà): from Morandus, an old personal name of uncertain derivation and meaning. Italian: topographic name from Old Italian mora ‘pile of stones’. Hungarian (Móra): from a pet form of the personal name Móricz, Hungarian form of Morris. Czech and Polish: from a short form of a personal name, e.g. Czech Mauric, Polish Maurycy, derived from Latin Mauritius (see Morris). Polish: possibly a nickname from mora ‘sickness’, ‘plague’. Czech: possibly a nickname from mora ‘vampire’.

Portugese and Spanish: habitational name from any of the towns called Ramos, in Portugal and Spain. Portuguese and Spanish: from the plural of ramo ‘branch’ (Latin ramus), a topographic name for someone who lived in a thickly wooded area.

Spanish (Velásquez): patronymic from the personal name Velasco.

Spanish: from hidalgo ‘nobleman’ (attested in this form since the 12th century), a contraction of the phrase hijo de algo ‘son of something’. The expression hijo de (Latin filius ‘son’ + de ‘of’) is used to indicate the abundant possession of a quality, probably influenced by similar Arabic phrases with ibn; algo (Latin aliquid ‘something’) is used in an elliptical manner to refer to riches or importance. As in the case of other surnames denoting high rank, the name does not normally refer to the nobleman himself, but is usually an occupational name for his servant or a nickname for someone who gave himself airs and graces.

Spanish, Galician, Aragonese, and Portuguese: habitational name from any of the numerous places called with Salas, like Salas and Salas de los Barrios, (Galicia), Salas de los Infantes, (Burgos province), Salas Altas and Salas Baxas (Aragon), from the plural of Sala. Catalan and Asturian-Leonese: variant of Sales. Americanized spelling of Hungarian Szálas, a nickname from szálas ‘tall’.

Galician: habitational name from Troncoso in Ourense province, from a derivative of tronco ‘tree trunk’, ‘stump’.

Spanish, Catalan, and Jewish (Sephardic): habitational name from any of numerous places called Aguilar, from Latin aquilare ‘haunt of eagles’ (a derivative of aquila ‘eagle’), for example Aguilar de Campo in Palencia, Aguilar de la Frontera in Córdoba, and Aguilar de Segarra in Catalonia.

Galician: habitational name from either of two places in Galicia named Ulloa (in A Coruña and Lugo provinces).

Catalan and Spanish: habitational name from any of various minor places called Cabrera, from Late Latin capraria ‘place of goats’ (a derivative of Latin capra ‘goat’).

Galician and Spanish (Ríos): habitational name from any of the places called Ríos, predominantly in Galicia. Spanish (Ríós): habitational name from Ríós in Ourense, Galicia.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the places named Rivas or Ribas, a variant of Ribas. in some cases, variant of Catalan Ribes (see Ribas).

Spanish (Durán) and Catalan: from the personal name Durand (see Durant, Durante). English: variant of Durant. Polish: from a derivative of Dura. Czech: from a derivative of Dura.

Spanish (León): habitational name from León, a city in northwestern Spain, named with Latin legio, genitive legionis ‘legion’, a division of the Roman army. In Roman times the city was the garrison of the 7th Legion, known as the Legio Gemina. The city’s name became reduced from Legion(em) to Leon(em), and in this form developed an unetymological association with the word for ‘lion’, Spanish león. Spanish: from the personal name León, from Greek leon ‘lion’ (see Lyon 2). Leon is also found as a Greek family name. Spanish: nickname for a fierce or brave warrior, from león ‘lion’. French (Léon) and English: variant of Lyon.

Spanish: from the popular medieval personal name Arias which is probably of Germanic origin. Jewish (Sephardic): adoption of the Spanish family name.

Spanish or Portuguese: unexplained. Compare Villarruel.

Spanish: topographical name from cueva ‘cave’, plural cuevas, or a habitational name from any of numerous places named with this word, for example in the provinces of Burgos and Málaga.

Portuguese (Osório) and Spanish: from a medieval personal name Osorius, of uncertain origin. It is perhaps a metathesized form of Latin Orosius (Greek Orosios, a derivative of oros ‘mountain’), the name borne by a 4th-century Iberian theologian and historian, who was famous in Spain throughout the Middle Ages.

Spanish (Marín), French, English, Slovenian, Croatian, and Romanian: from the Latin personal name Marinus, borne by several minor early saints. Originally this was a Roman family name derived from Marius (compare Marie), but was often taken to mean ‘of the sea’. Italian (Venetia): variant of Marino. Serbian, Croatian, and Slovenian: from the personal name Marija or its short form Mara (see Maria). Galician and Spanish: habitational name from a place called Marín, in particular the one in Pontevedra, Galicia. French: occupational name for a sailor, Old French marin (Late Latin marinus, a derivative of mare ‘sea’). Asturian-Leonese (Marín): occupational name for a sailor in Asturies.

Spanish (Calderón): topographic name from an augmentative of caldera ‘basin’, ‘crater’, ‘hollow’, a common element of stream and mountain names, or a habitational name from a place named with this word, as for example Calderón in Valencia province. Alternatively, it may be a metonymic occupational name from the same word in the sense ‘kettle’, ‘cauldron’.

Spanish: habitational name from a place named Lara de los Infantes in Burgos province.

Galician (Méndez): patronymic from the personal name Mendo (see Mendes, of which this is the Galician equivalent).

Spanish (Chávez): variant spelling of Chaves.

Spanish (Catalán): regional name for someone from Catalonia (Spanish Cataluña).

Spanish and French: from the medieval personal name Ponce, ultimately from Pontius, a Roman family name of uncertain origin, perhaps an ethnic name for someone from Pontus (named with Greek pontos ‘ocean’) in Asia Minor, or an Italic cognate of Latin Quintus ‘fifth’ (i.e. ‘fifth-born’). The name was borne by two 3rd-century saints, a Carthaginian deacon and a martyr of Nice, but was not widely popular in the Middle Ages because of the inhibiting influence of the even more famous Pontius Pilate. In some cases, though, the surname may have been originally used for someone who had played the part of this character in a religious play.

Spanish and Portuguese: from a personal name of uncertain, possibly pre-Roman, origin.

Spanish: habitational name from Villalobos in Zamora province, named from villa ‘(outlying) farmstead’, ‘(dependent) settlement’ + lobos, plural of lobo ‘wolf’.

Spanish: habitational name from Ojeda in Burgos province or from the valley of Ojeda in Palencia province, which is probably named with a reduced form of Latin folia ‘leaves’ + the collective suffix -eta.

Spanish: habitational name from Moya, in Cuenca, or from places so named Valencia, Lugo, and the Canaries. Catalan (Moyà): variant spelling of the habitational name from Moià in Barcelona province, named in Late Latin as Modianus ‘(estate) of Modius’ (a personal name derived from Latin modus ‘measure’).

Spanish: possibly from correa ‘leather strap’, ‘belt’, ‘rein’, ‘shoelace’, plural correas (Latin corrigia ‘fastening’, from corrigere ‘to straighten’, ‘to correct’), applied as a metonymic occupational name for a maker or seller of such articles.

Spanish and Catalan: topographic name for someone who lived near a gate or fence, from Spanish and Catalan barrera ‘barrier’. topographic name for someone who lived by a clay pit, Spanish barrera, barrero (a derivative of barro ‘mud’, ‘clay’).

Spanish: habitational name probably from Cifuentes in Guadalajara, named from Spanish cien ‘hundred’ (Latin centum) + fuentes ‘springs’ (Latin fontes (see Font), because of the abundance of natural springs in the area).

Spanish: from concha ‘shell’ (Latin concha), applied as a topographic name for someone who lived in or near a hollow or depression in the land, or a habitational name from any of the places named with this word, notably the one in Guadalajara.

Spanish: habitational name from Burgos, the capital of old Castile.

Spanish and Portuguese: nickname for a thin person, from Spanish, Portuguese delgado ‘slender’ (Latin delicatus ‘dainty’, ‘exquisite’, a derivative of deliciae ‘delight’, ‘joy’).

Spanish: habitational name from a place in Logroño province named Alfaro, apparently from Arabic al ‘the’ + Old Spanish faro ‘beacon’, ‘lighthouse’.

Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian: nickname for a belligerent person or for a soldier, from guerra ‘war’. In some cases the Italian name may represent a short form of various compound personal names containing this element, for example Vinciguèrra. The Iberian name may in some cases reflect a misinterpretation of the Basque base ezquerra, esquerra, from esker ‘left-handed’. Basque: Castilianized form of Basque Gerra, a topographic name for someone who lived in a break or depression in a range of hills, from Basque gerri ‘waist’.

Galician and Portuguese: nickname for a witty person, from salgado ‘salty’, figuratively ‘witty’, ‘piquant’ (from Late Latin salicatus, past participle of salicare ‘to give salt to’).

Spanish: habitational name from a place in Palencia province called Astudillo.

topographic name for someone who lived in the lower part of a village, from Basque uri ‘settlement’ + be(h)e ‘lower part’. habitational name from Uribe, a town in Biscay province, Basque Country.

Spanish (Ávila): habitational name from Ávila in old Castile. Its name, first recorded in the Latin forms Avela and Abulia, is of unknown derivation and meaning. Portuguese and Galician: from Davila, a topographic name for someone from a town or village, da vila, reinterpreted as d’Avila.

Spanish: metonymic occupational name for a cobbler or shoemaker, from zapato ‘half boot’. Spanish and Galician: possibly also a habitational name from the places in Pontevedra and Ávila called Zapata.

Spanish: topographic or habitational name from a place named with ahumar ‘to smoke’, possibly denoting a place where ham and other meats were smoked or alternatively a place that had been cleared for settlement by burning. Places named with this word are found in Jaén and Cádiz.

possibly Basque: unexplained.

Spanish form of Basque Agirre, a topographic name from Basque ager, agir ‘open space’, ‘pasture’. This is found as the first element of several place names, reflected in surnames such as Aguirrezabal(a) ‘broad open space’; the modern surname may be a shortening of any of these.

Galician and Spanish: nickname, probably for a high-spirited person, from becerra ‘young cow’, ‘heifer’. It may also have been a metonymic occupational name for a cowherd.

Galician: habitational name from any of several places in Lugo province named Neira.

Spanish (Gálvez): patronymic from the medieval personal name Galve (Arabic Ghalib ‘triumphant’), which was borne by various Moorish chieftains in Spanish history and legend, notably the father-in-law of Al-Mansur, the 10th-century vizier of Córdoba.

Spanish and Portuguese: from lobo ‘wolf’, plural lobos. This is a frequent element in minor place names.

Spanish: from moraga ‘barbecue’, from Arabic.

formerly most common in the Basque country and in Aragon, this name is generally assumed to be from abarca ‘sandal’ (Basque abarka), which refers to the traditional Basque peasant sandal or moccasin made of uncured leather. In the past this word was also applied to footwear made from wooden materials, and is probably derived from Basque abar ‘branch’, ‘twig’. Some scholars, however, think that abarka is an old topographic term referring to a grove of holm oaks or kermes oaks. habitational name from the village of Abarca in the province of Palencia.

in Spain, a widespread family name of uncertain derivation. in Chile, a habitational name from Valdivia in Chile. in Ecuador, a nickname from valdivia ‘bird of prey’.

Portuguese, Galician, and Jewish (Sephardic): topographic name from Portuguese pereira ‘pear tree’, or a habitational name from a place named with this word in Portugal and Galicia. The surname is also common in western India, having been taken there by Portuguese colonists.

Spanish: unexplained. Perhaps a habitational name from a place so named in Estremadura. This name is common in Argentina, Chile, and Mexico.

Spanish (Cárcamo): from cárcavo ‘cooking pot’ (from Latin carcabus), hence probably a metonymic occupational name for a maker of such pots or for a cook.

Spanish: habitational name from any of several places called Canales, from canales, plural of canal ‘canal’, ‘water channel’, from Latin canalis.

This is a Leonese name from Astorga. Found throughout the Peninsula and also Colombia.

Spanish: habitational name from Villegas, a place in Burgos province.

Basque: habitational name from either of two places in Biscay province called Urrutia, named with Basque urruti ‘distant’ + the definite article -a.

Spanish and Portuguese: from a common and widespread religious Christian personal name from cruz ‘cross’ (Latin crux), or a habitational name from any of numerous places named Cruz or La Cruz, from this word.

Basque: Castilianized form of Basque Gatika, a habitational name from a place called Gatika in Biscay, Basque Country.

Basque: habitational name from any of several places in the Basque Country named Ibarra, from ibar ‘meadow’ + the definite article -a.

Spanish (mainly Mexico): variant of Quiros.

Galician and Basque: habitational name from Mella or La Mella in La Coruña province, Galicia, or from La Mella in Biscay, Basque Country.

Spanish and Portuguese: from the honorific title Cid (from Arabic sayyid ‘lord’), borne by Christian overlords with Muslim vassals, most famously by Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar (1043–99), El Cid. This was early adopted as a personal name.

Spanish: from mancilla ‘mole’, ‘birthmark’ or ‘blot’, ‘stain’ (Latin manucella), hence a nickname for someone with a blemish on their skin or their character. Asturian-Leonese: habitational name from Mancilla, a village in Lleón province, northern Spain.

Spanish: habitational name from a place of this name in the province of Jaén.

Spanish: habitational name from Mansilla, a place in La Rioja province.

Spanish (Manríquez): patronymic from Manrique.

Galician and Portuguese: habitational name from any of numerous places in Galicia and Portugal named Andrade, perhaps originally villa Andr(e)ati ‘estate of a man named Andreas’.

Spanish: plural variant of Vallejo.

English, Spanish, and Portuguese: nickname for a loyal or trustworthy person, from Old French leial, Spanish and Portuguese leal ‘loyal’, ‘faithful (to obligations)’, Latin legalis, from lex, ‘law’, ‘obligation’ (genitive legis).

Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and Jewish (Sephardic and Ashkenazic): nickname from Portuguese, Spanish, Italian caro ‘dear’, ‘beloved’ (Latin carus). In medieval Italy this was also a personal name. Italian (Sicily; Carò): variant of Carrò (see Carro).

Catalan (València) and Spanish: habitational name from any of various places called València or Valencia, principally the major city in eastern Spain, which was formerly the capital of an independent Moorish kingdom of the same name, until it was reconquered in 1239 by James I, king of the Catalan dynasty, and became part of the Crown of Aragon together with the Principality of Catalonia and the Kingdom of Aragon. The city was apparently named from an honorary title derived from Latin valens ‘brave’.

Spanish: habitational name from any of various places named Rebolledo, for example Rebolledo de la Torre in Burgos, from rebollo denoting a species of oak.

Spanish and Asturian-Leonese (Solís): habitational name from Solís in Asturies or a similarly named place elsewhere. English: from a medieval personal name bestowed on a child born after the death of a sibling, from Middle English solace ‘comfort’, ‘consolation’. The word also came to have the sense ‘delight’, ‘amusement’, and in some cases the surname may have arisen from a nickname for a playful or entertaining person.

Spanish: from the plural of vara ‘rod’, ‘stick’ (see Varas), of uncertain application, possibly topographic.

Spanish (Córdova): variant of Cordoba.

Basque: habitational name from several places in the provinces of Arava and Biscay called Mendoza, named with Basque mendi ‘mountain’ + otz ‘cold’ + the definite article -a.

Variant of Spanish Barrios.

Spanish (Véliz): variant of Vélez (see Velez).

Spanish: habitational name from any of numerous places called Arenas, from the plural of arena ‘sand’ (Latin (h)arena).

Spanish: habitational name from Vilches, a place in Jaén province.

Spanish: habitational name from the city of Zamora in northwestern Spain, capital of the province which bears its name.

Spanish: nickname for a person with some peculiarity of the cheek or jaw, Spanish carrillo. The word is attested since the 13th century, but its origin is uncertain. It appears to be a diminutive of carro ‘cart’, ‘wagon’, and it has been suggested that the reference is to the movements of the jaw in chewing. The surname may also have denoted originally a bold or shameless person; for the semantic development compare Cheek.

Spanish: topographic name for someone living on or by a cluster of hillocks, from the plural of cabeza ‘head’, ‘hillock’ (see Cabeza).

Spanish and Portuguese: nickname for someone with tawny hair, from pardo ‘dusky’, ‘brown’, ‘dark gray’, (from Latin pardus ‘leopard’). Italian: from a personal name, a variant of the Lombardic personal name Bardo (see Bardo). Italian and Greek: from the Greek personal name Pardos ‘leopard’, ‘cheetah’.

Spanish: habitational name for someone from Zamora, from an adjectival form of the place name. Compare Zambrano.

Spanish: habitational name from any of various places called Plaza, from plaza ‘town square’.

Spanish: nickname from rubio ‘red’ (Latin rubeus), probably denoting someone with red hair or a red beard. Catalan (Rubió): habitational name from any of the places named Rubió in Catalonia.

Spanish: habitational name from Meneses de Campos (Palencia, Castile), or for an ethnic name for someone from the Mena valley in Burgos. Portuguese: habitational name from any of the several places named Meneses in Portugal.

Spanish: topographic name from the plural of roble ‘oak’, or a habitational name from Los Robles in Lleón, named from the same word.

Galician, Asturian-Leonese, and Portuguese: habitational name from any of numerous places called Parada, predominantly in Galicia, but also in Asturies, Lleón, and northern Portugal.

Spanish: habitational name from Roa in Burgos province.

Spanish and Jewish (Sephardic): habitational name from Mena, in Castile and León provinces. Greek (Menas): see Minas.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the numerous places named Huerta, from huerta ‘vegetable garden’ (Latin hortus). This is also a Sephardic Jewish surname.

Spanish (Arévalo): habitational name from places called Arévalo, in the provinces of Ávila and Soria, or from various places named with this word.

(French) Descendant of Geoffray or Godefroi (God's peace).

Spanish and Asturian-Leonese: possibly a variant of Cansino, a habitational name from a place named Cansinos in Asturies, or from Los Cansinos in Córdoba province.

Spanish (Suárez): occupational name for a swineherd, Latin Suerius. Compare Portuguese Soares.

Spanish (Márquez): patronymic from the personal name Marcos.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the places called Tobar, named with a collective noun derived from toba ‘tufa’ (a kind of light, porous volcanic rock).

Spanish (Beltrán), Catalan, and southern French: from a Germanic personal name composed of the elements berht ‘bright’, ‘famous’ + hrabn ‘raven’. See also Bertram.

Catalan, French, English, German (also Romann), Polish, Hungarian (Román), Romanian, Ukrainian, and Belorussian: from the Latin personal name Romanus, which originally meant ‘Roman’. This name was borne by several saints, including a 7th-century bishop of Rouen. English, French, and Catalan: regional or ethnic name for someone from Rome or from Italy in general, or a nickname for someone who had some connection with Rome, as for example having been there on a pilgrimage. Compare Romero.

Spanish (Olguín): variant of Holguín (see Holguin).

Aragonese, Catalan, and Spanish: habitational name from any of the places in Aragon, Catalonia, and Navarre called Peralta, from Latin petra alta ‘high rock’. This name is also established in Italy.

Asturian-Leonese and Spanish: habitational name from the ancient city of Astorga in León province, named in Latin Asturica.

Spanish: habitational name from Aguayo in Córdoba, or from Santa Olalla de Aguayo, in Santander.

English and French: variant of Marchand.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the numerous places named Gallegos, originally denoting a place settled by ‘people from Galicia’.

Spanish: variant (plural) of Palacio.

Italian: from a short form of various personal names formed with the hypocoristic suffix -lillo, as for example Jacolillo or Paolillo.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the places named Rosales, from the plural of rosal, collective of rosa ‘rose’ (see Rosal). Galician (Rosalés): name for someone from Rosal, a town in Baixo Miñ district in Galicia.

Spanish, Catalan (Garcés), and Portuguese (Garcês): variant of the patronymic Garciez, from the personal name García (see Garcia).

Spanish: habitational name from places in the provinces of Santander and Navarra called Arce. Their name is a Castilianized spelling of Basque artze ‘stony place’ (from arri ‘stone’ + the suffix of abundance -tz(e)).

Basque: habitational name or topographic name from Basque ai ‘slope’, ‘hillside’ + al(h)a ‘pasture’.

Castilianized form of Basque Zuhatzu, habitational name from places in Araba and Navarre named Zuhatzu, from Basque zu(h)aitz ‘tree’ + the collective suffix -zu, tsu.

Spanish form of Basque Loiola: habitational name from Loiola in Guipúzcoa and Biscay provinces, named from Basque loi ‘mud’ + the locative suffix -ola.

Spanish and Portuguese: habitational name from any of the numerous places named Santana, an assimilated form of Santa Ana.

Spanish: habitational name from either of two places in the Burgos province: Jaramillo de la Fuente or Jaramillo Quemada.

Spanish: from cabello ‘hair’ (Latin capillus, a collective noun), applied as a nickname for a man with a particularly luxuriant growth of hair, or perhaps ironically for a bald man.

Galician: habitational name from a place called Candia, in Lugo province, Galicia. Italian: see De Candia.

habitational name from any of the numerous places named Villanueva, from Spanish villa ‘(outlying) farmstead’, ‘(dependent) settlement’ + nueva (feminine) ‘new’ (Latin nova). Castilianized spelling of Catalan and Galician Vilanova, a habitational name from a frequent place name, of the same derivation as 1 above.

Basque: variant spelling of Lezama.

Spanish: variant of Cortés (see Cortes).

Spanish, Catalan, Asturian-Leonese, and Galician: habitational name from any of the numerous places, large and small, named Quintana, from quintana ‘country house’ (originally having a tax liability of one fifth of the annual produce). variant of French Quintaine, from an Old French term denoting a post for jousting practice, hence a nickname for one who was skilled at this.

Spanish (also Monsalvé): unexplained.

English: variant spelling of Layton. Galician and Portuguese: perhaps a variant spelling of Leitón, or Leitã (Galacian) a nickname meaning ‘suckling pig’.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the numerous places named Espinosa, from a collective form of espina ‘thorn’.

Spanish: nickname from mellado ‘nicked’, for someone who missed one or more teeth, from mellar ‘to nick’.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the various minor places, for example in the provinces of Burgos, Guadalajara, and Valladolid, named from Spanish padilla ‘frying pan’, ‘breadpan’ (Latin patella, a diminutive of patina ‘shallow dish’), a word which was commonly used in the topographical sense of a gentle depression.

Spanish: habitational name from the city of this name in central Spain. The place name is of uncertain origin (possibly based on a Celtic element sego ‘victory’).

Portuguese: from the personal name Duarte, Portuguese equivalent of Edward.

Galician (Nóvoa): habitational name from the former Galician juridical district Terra de Nóvoa, in Ourense province.

Spanish and Portuguese: from verdugo, which has a variety of meanings, ranging from ‘switch’, ‘whip’ to ‘tyrant’, ‘hangman’, some or all of which may have contributed to the surname. Galician: habitational name from O Verdugo, a town in Pontevedra province, Galicia.

Spanish: habitational name from places called Carmona, in the provinces of Santander and (more famously) Seville. The place name is of pre-Roman origin and uncertain meaning.

Spanish: habitational name from places in the provinces of Badajoz and Cadiz called Jerez. The former, now known in full as Jerez de los Caballeros, was the birthplace of the explorer Vasco Núñez (c.1475–1519); the latter, Jerez de la Frontera, was an important center for the manufacture of sherry (named in English from the place) and brandy.

Spanish (also found in Portugal and Brazil): topographic name for someone who lived by a mountain ridge or chain of hills, from an adjectival derivative of serra.

Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian: habitational name from any of various places in Spain, Portugal, and Italy called Montenegro (‘black mountain’).

Spanish: habitational name from any of various places, for example Aranda de Duero in Burgos province, which bears a name of pre-Roman, probably Celtic, origin.

Spanish, Galician, and Portuguese: habitational name from any of the places called Cea, in León, in Ourense and A Coruña, Galicia, and in Portugal.

Spanish: patronymic from the common medieval personal name Ben Avid, of Arabic origin, from ibn ?Abd ‘son of the servant (of God)’ see Benavidez.

Spanish form (Echeverría) of Basque Etxeberria (see Echevarria).

Catalan, Spanish, and Portuguese: habitational name from Oliva in Valencia, Santa Oliva in Girona, or possibly from any of the places in Extremadura named La Oliva, from Latin oliva ‘olive’. Italian (mainly southern and Ligurian): from Latin oliva ‘olive’; a topographic name for someone who lived by an olive tree or grove, or a metonymic occupational name for a gatherer or seller of olives or an extractor or seller of olive oil, or perhaps in some cases a nickname for someone with a sallow complexion. German: habitational name from Oliva, a place now in Gdansk voivodeship, Poland.

Spanish: habitational name for someone ‘from Zamora’, from an adjectival form of the place name. Spanish: possibly also habitational name for someone from Zanbrana, a town in Araba province, Basque Country. Italian: of uncertain derivation; it is thought by some authorities, on the basis of the form Zammarano to be a habitational name for someone from Zammaro, part of San Gregorio d’Ippona in Vibe Valentia province, hypercorrection of -mm- to -mb- being a characteristic of southern dialect.

Czech (Moravian) and Slovak (Matúš); Polish; Croatian (Slavonia, Matuš); and Slovenian (eastern Slovenia, Matuš): from Slavic forms of the Latin personal name Matthaeus (see Matthew). Hungarian: from a pet form of Máté, Hungarian form of Matthew. Jewish (Ashkenazic): variant of Mates.

Spanish and Catalan: habitational name from any of various places called Segura, named with segura ‘safe’, ‘secure’.

One who came from Barrios (district, suburb); the name of many places in Spain.Popular surname found in most of the Peninsula, but mainly in northern areas: Leon, Vizcaya, and Burgos. Over 30 towns and villages in all parts of Spain with this name which implies a political subdivision, a ward or suburb.

Spanish: habitational name for someone from any of several place called Altamira, for example the one in the province of Ávila which is famous for its spectacular cave paintings.

Spanish: occupational or status name from Spanish merino, the title of a royal or seigneurial functionary who had wide legal and military jurisdiction over a district. The word is from Late Latin maiorinus, a derivative of maior. Compare Mayer and Mayoral.

Spanish: from cordero ‘young lamb’ (Latin cordarius, a derivative of cordus ‘young’, ‘new’), hence a metonymic occupational name for a shepherd, or alternatively a nickname meaning ‘lamb’.

Spanish: habitational name from Arellano in Navarre, named in Late Latin as fundus Aurelianus ‘the farm or estate of Aurelius’.

Spanish: unexplained; probably topographic.

Basque: habitational name from Urbina in Araba province, Basque Country, or a topographic name probably for someone who lived near a confluence, from Basque ur- ‘water’ + bi ‘two’.

Galician: habitational name from any of the places in Galicia named Varela, from a diminutive of vara ‘rod’, ‘stick’. Greek (Varelas): from Greek varela ‘barrel’, from Italian barella ‘barrel’. Accented on the final syllable, varelás is a metonymic occupational name for a cooper; with the accent on the middle syllable, varélas is a nickname for a large fat man.

Spanish (Céspedes): from the plural of cesped ‘peat’, ‘turf’ (Latin caespes, genitive caespitis), applied as a habitational name from a place named Céspedes (for example in Burgos province) or named with this word, or a topographic name for someone who lived by an area of peat, or possibly as a metonymic occupational name for someone who cut and sold turf.

Spanish: habitational name from what is now Spain’s principal city. Throughout the Middle Ages it was of only modest size and importance, and did not become the capital of Spain until 1561. Its name is of uncertain origin, most probably a derivative of Late Latin matrix, genitive matricis ‘riverbed’, much changed by Arabic mediation. Compare Madrigal. There are other, smaller places of the same name in the provinces of Burgos and Santander, and these may also be sources of the surname.

Spanish (Alegría) and Portuguese: nickname from Spanish alegría or Portuguese alegria ‘joy’, ‘happiness’. Castilianized form of Basque Alegia, a habitational name from any of the towns named Alegia in the Basque Country.

Spanish: habitational name from a place in Soria province.

Spanish: of uncertain origin; perhaps a variant of Basque Lizama.

Basque: probably nickname from Basque urzo ‘dove’ + the definite article -a.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the places named Valderrama, as for example in Burgos province.

Basque: topographic name from Basque aburto ‘place of kermes oaks’, from abur ‘kermes oak’ + the locative suffix -lo.

Spanish: habitational name from places called Luna in Zaragoza, Araba, and Lleón provinces. Jewish (Sephardic): from the female personal name Luna (Spanish luna ‘moon’).

Asturian-Leonese and Spanish: from fierro ‘iron’ (Latin ferrum) in Asturian-Leonese (alongside the variant fierru) and in a regional variant of Castilian. Italian: Campanese variant of Ferro.

Spanish: variant spelling of Cepeda.

Portuguese: habitational name from any of various places called Brito. The place name is probably related to the root britt-. Compare Breton.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the towns called Vivanco, as for example in Burgos province.

Spanish: from the personal name Vincencio, Latin Vincentius (see Vincent).

Galician and Spanish: habitational name from any of numerous places named Rozas, especially in Galicia, from the plural form of Galician and Spanish roza ‘cleared land ready for plowing’ (see Roza).

This surname is derived from the name of an ancestor. Welsh Ap-Rice or Ap-Rees=son of Rice (q.v).'Item, geven to Harry ap-Rice', 1544: Privy Purse Exp., Princess Mary.Philip ap Rys. Calendarium Rotulorum Patentium in Turri Londinensi.

Spanish (Águila): from águila ‘eagle’ (Latin aquila). This is either a nickname for a haughty man or one with an aquiline nose, or a habitational name from a place in Salamanca province called Águila.

Spanish (Ávalos): habitational name from Ábalos, a place near Haro in Soria province, on the edge of the Basque country. A Basque origin of the place name has been suggested, involving the stem abar- ‘kermes oak’, but this is highly conjectural.

Southern Spanish: unexplained.

Hungarian (Áros): occupational name for a merchant, or a shopkeeper, from árus ‘seller’. Norwegian (Åros): habitational name from any of several farmsteads named Åros, from å ‘stream’ + os ‘estuary’. Spanish: apparently of Galician origin (Tui) and probably a topographic name related to aro ‘hoop’.

Galician: habitational name from Lazo in A Coruña province. Spanish: nickname from Spanish lazo ‘hair ribbon’, ‘shoe lace’.

Basque: topographic name, probably formed with Basque ali ‘food’ + the locative suffix -aga.

Spanish and Galician: topographic name for someone who lived by a well, pozo (Latin puteus ‘well’, ‘pit’), or habitational name from any of the many places named Pozo, in particular Pozo in Galicia or El Pozo in Asturies, named with pozo ‘well’ (from Latin puteus).

Spanish and Portuguese: from the plural of rosa ‘rose’. Catalan: variant of Roses, habitational name from Roses, a town in L’Alt Empordà, Catalonia (earlier Rodas). Spanish: habitational name from any of the numerous places named Las Rosas.

Spanish (mainly southern; Villagrán): habitational name, apparently from a lost place called Villa Grande, meaning ‘large farmstead or settlement’.

Spanish: habitational name from the city so named in Cáceres province, called in Latin Turgalium, which is probably of Arabic origin. This place was the home of various conquistadors, hence its great frequency in the Americas.

Basque: Castilianized form of Garai, a habitational name from Garai, in Biscay, Basque Country, or from one of the five other, smaller places of the same name, also in Biscay, all named from Basque garai ‘high’, a derivative of gara ‘height’, ‘peak’. Hungarian: habitational name for someone from a place called Gara.

Spanish: plural of Quintero, probably from a place name.

Spanish (Domínguez): patronymic from the personal name Domingo.

Spanish and Portuguese: from machucar, machacar ‘to squash’, ‘to crush’, probably applied as a nickname for someone who was obstinate.

Spanish (Mejías): variant of Mejía (see Mejia).

Spanish (Báez): of uncertain derivation, but possibly a variant of Paez.

Basque: topographic name composed of the elements gain ‘peak’, ‘summit’ + boa ‘rounded’.

Spanish: nickname from the past participle of hurtar ‘to rob or conceal’ (Late Latin furtare, from furtum ‘theft’, fur ‘thief’). The reference was probably to an illegitimate child, whose existence was concealed, or to a kidnapped child.

Spanish (Chacón): nickname from chacón ‘gecko’.

Catalan and Italian: topographic name from Latin casa ‘house’ + nova ‘new’, or a habitational name from any of the many places named with these words.

Spanish: occupational name for a beater or other assistant at a hunt, from an agent derivative of monte, which, as well as meaning ‘mountain’, ‘hill’, could be used in the transferred sense of a game forest on wooded upland. The occupational term was itself also used as a title for any of various palace functionaries, and some cases of the surname may derive from this.

Spanish: habitational name from a place in Santander province named Arredondo, from redondo ‘round’, because of the roundish shape of the hill on which it stands.

Catalan: from the personal name Bernal, a variant of Spanish Bernaldo (see Bernard).

Galician: habitational name from Quiroga, a place in Lugo province, so named from the plant queiroga, quiroga ‘erica’.

Spanish: unexplained. This is a frequent name in Spain.

Portuguese and Spanish: altered form (by misdivision) of Da Costa.

Basque: habitational name from any of various places in Gipuzkoa named Madariaga, from Basque madari ‘pear tree’ + -aga ‘place’.

Spanish: nickname from chamorro ‘shaven head’, used especially to denote a boy or Portuguese man.

Spanish: habitational name probably from Escalona in Toledo province; otherwise from Escalona del Prado in Soria.

Asturian-Leonese (Avilés): habitational name from Avilés, a place in Asturies on the coast west of Xixón (Gijón in Spanish). The place name is derived either from a pre-Roman cognomen, Abilus, or from the Latin name Abilius, from the place name formed with (Villa) Abilius + the suffix -ensis. Spanish: possibly also habitational name for someone from Ávila (see Avila).

Dweller in a damp place, or on land which is newly cultivated.Ancient Galician and Portuguese surname, and name of villages near Orense, Santander, and Oviedo. Means "lleno de barro," to fill a pit."Barro" could refer to a humid place or land that is plowed.

from the personal name Medel, possibly a derivative of the Latin name Emetherius. habitational name from San Medel, a town in Salamanca province.

Galician: topographic name from o vale ‘the valley’ (Latin uallis, ualles).

Portuguese: habitational name from any of numerous places named with Portuguese merlo ‘blackbird’ (Latin merulus).

Spanish and Aragonese: from the personal name Tello (see Tellez). Italian: from a short form of a personal name formed with this suffix, as for example Donatello, Moscatello, Otello.

Portuguese and Galician: habitational name from any of the numerous places so named, from Portuguese and Galician rocha ‘rock’, ‘cliff’.

nickname for someone with red hair, from rojo ‘red’ (Latin rubeus). habitational name from either of two places in Galicia called Rojo, in A Coruña and Lugo provinces.

Adjective from the latin "bellus" - beautiful.Found in Galicia, Orense, and Leon. Names of villages near Oviedo and Teruel. Derived from latin "bellus" - beautiful, perfect.Galician name found throughout the Peninsula.

Spanish: habitational name from a place in Santander province called Celis.

Galician: Castilianized spelling of Valadares, a habitational name from various places in Galicia, so named from a derivative of valado ‘boundary wall’, ‘ditch’ (from Latin vallus, vallum ‘fence’, ‘barrier’, ‘bastion’).

Spanish: habitational name from any of the numerous places named Llanos or Los Llan, from the plural of llano ‘plain’.

Spanish: habitational name from a place called Ceballos, a district of Santander.

Spanish: nickname from lucero, a derivative of luz ‘light’, which has variety of meanings including ‘morning or evening star’, ‘star or blaze marking on a horse’.

Spanish, Galician, Portuguese, and Jewish (Sephardic): habitational name from any of the numerous places in Spain (especially in Galicia) and Portugal named or named with Prado, from prado ‘meadow’ (from Latin pratum).

Spanish form (Páez) of Portuguese and Galician Pais.

Spanish: habitational name from any of various places called Quintanilla, from a diminutive of quintana ‘country house’ (see Quintana).

Spanish: possibly a nickname for a person with a prominent jaw, from quijada ‘jaw’, ‘jawbone’.

Galician: habitational name from one of the Galician places called Baadmonde (earlier written Bahamonde) in the province of Lugo, most probably Santiago de Baamonde (Begonte). This is a characteristic example of the numerous (over a thousand) medieval places which were named after their owners, in this case Badamundus.

Castilianized form of Asturian-Leonese Llabra, habitational name from the town of Llabra, in Asturies.

Asturian-Leonese and Spanish: habitational name from any of the places (mainly in Asturies) called Villa, from villa ‘(outlying) farmstead’, ‘(dependent) settlement’, or from any of the numerous places named with this word as the first element. Italian: topographic name for someone who lived in a village as opposed to an isolated farmhouse, or in a town as opposed to the countryside, from Latin villa ‘country house’, ‘estate’, later used to denote of a group of houses forming a settlement and in some dialects to denote the most important area or center of a settlement, or a habitational name from any of various places named with this word.

Spanish: of uncertain derivation; probably a habitational name from one of the places in Galicia called Lira, in A Coruña and Pontevedra provinces.

Spanish: variant of Badillo.

Spanish: habitational name from any of numerous places named with arroyo ‘watercourse’, ‘irrigation channel’ (a word of pre-Roman origin).

nickname for a hirsute individual, from Portuguese veloso ‘hairy’ (Latin villosus). habitational name from any of the places in Portugal named Veloso.

Spanish: habitational name from the city of Salamanca in western Spain, which is of pre-Roman foundation and obscure etymology. During the Middle Ages it was one of the leading cultural centers of Europe, and the surname may in some cases have been been a respectful nickname for someone who had visited the city.

Spanish (Benítez): patronymic from Benito.

nickname from Spanish zurita ‘dove’. habitational name from either of two places, in Uesca and Santander, named Zurita, possibly from Basque zuri ‘white’.

This surname is derived from the name of an ancestor. 'the son of Orme' (Orm, Domesday); compare the local Urmston, Ormston, Ormsby, Ormskirk, Ormerod, and the Great Orme's Head. In this last the meaning Orm, the serpent (whence worm), comes out, i.

The double suffix added to "boba" means a small but at the same time great foolishness, or suggests an individual who is large physically but has few brains. It could be the name given for a misunderstanding between two families that was caused by an annoyance but had lasting consequences.

Spanish: habitational name from Cepeda in Salamanca province or Cepeda la Mora in Ávila province, named from cepeda, a collective of cepa ‘tree stump’, ‘stock’ (from Latin cippus ‘pillar’).

Spanish: from mercado ‘market’, topographic name for someone living by a market or metonymic occupational name for a market trader.

Spanish: from coronado ‘crowned’, past participle of coronare ‘to crown’, applied as a nickname for someone who behaved in an imperious manner.

Basque: variant of Zabala 1.

Spanish: topographic name for someone who lived by an orange grove, from Spanish naranjo ‘orange tree’ (from naranja ‘orange’, Arabic naránjya), or a habitational name from a place named Naranjo in A Coruña and Códoba provinces. (The word orange reached English from Spanish via Old French and Old Provençal, in which languages the initial n- had already been sporadically lost.)

Spanish: habitational name from any of numerous places named Villar, or in some cases a Castilianized spelling of the Catalan and Galician cognates Vilar. English: variant of Villers, cognate with 3. Southern French: topographic name from Late Latin villare ‘outlying farm’, ‘dependent settlement’, or a habitational name from any of various places named with this word.

Spanish and Catalan: habitational name from any of the numerous places in Spain and Portugal named Estrada, from estrada ‘road’, Latin stata (via) (from sternere ‘to strew or cover’), a term denoting a paved way.

Spanish: from allende ‘on the other side’, hence a topographic name for someone living on the far side of some natural landmark, such as a mountain.

Basque: habitational name from Zarate, a place in Araba province, named from Basque zara ‘thicket’.

Castilianized form of Basque Espartza, a habitational name from Espartza, a village in Navarre province.

Spanish: nickname for a dark-haired or dark-skinned man, from Old Spanish prieto ‘dark’, ‘black’. The adjective derives from the verb apretar ‘to squeeze or compress’, a metathesized form of apetrar, Late Latin appectorare ‘to hold close to the chest’ (from pectus, genitive pectoris, ‘chest’). The use as a color term seems to have derived originally from its application to rain clouds and fog.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the places named Olmos, from the plural of olmo ‘elm’.

Spanish, Catalan, Aragonese, and Asturian-Leonese: topographic name from Latin solarius ‘ancestral home’ (a derivative of solum ‘ground’, ‘floor’), perhaps denoting someone who lived near or at the house of an important family. Galician: habitational name from any of the places named Solar (Lugo, Logroño). Jewish (from Ukraine): occupational name from Ukrainian solyar ‘salt merchant’. Compare Polish Solarz.

Galician and Portuguese: common topographic name for someone who lived by a forge or iron workings, from Latin ferraria ‘forge’, ‘iron working’.

Spanish and Aragonese (Agüero): habitational name from places in the provinces of Uesca (Aragon) and Santander named Agüero or from Puente Agüero in Santander province. They are probably named from Late Latin (vicus) aquarius ‘well-watered (settlement)’.

Spanish: frequent but unexplained, also found as Alviar.

Spanish and Jewish (Sephardic): habitational name from any of the numerous places named Sierra or La Sierra, from sierra ‘ridge or chain of hills’ (from Latin serra ‘saw’).

Spanish: habitational name from places in the provinces of Cantabria, Palencia, and Burgos named Olea, possibly from Basque ola ‘forge’, ‘ironworks’ + the definite article -a.

Spanish and Catalan: habitational name from any of the places in the provinces of Barcelona, Cuenca, and Burgos named Pineda, from Spanish and Catalan pineda ‘pine forest’. in some instances possibly Asturian-Leonese Piñeda, from a town called Piñeda in Asturies.

Spanish: nickname for a man with white or fair hair or a pale complexion, from blanco ‘white’. Italian (Sicily): variant of Bianco, perhaps influenced by French blanc and Spanish (see 1 above).

Spanish and Portuguese: habitational name from any of several places named for a spring that dried up during the summer months, from fonte seca ‘dry well’.

Spanish (Millán): variant of Milían (see Milian). Galician: patronymical name from Millán, from a reduced form of a personal name from Latin Aemilianus (see Milian). Galician: in some cases, possibly a habitational name from any of the places in Galicia called Millán, from Latin villa Aemiliani ‘villa of Aemilianus’. Scottish: shortened form of McMillan.

Spanish: habitational name from any of several places called Arcos or Los Arcos, with reference to their arches or arcades.

Spanish: habitational name from Encima-Angulo in Burgos province.

most probably from a derivative of Basque inza ‘reed bed’.

Spanish: either a variant of Béjar (see Bejar) or perhaps a variant of Véjer, a habitational name from a place called Véjer, in Cádiz province.

Spanish and Portuguese: from the Marian epithet paz ‘peace’ (Latin pax, genitive pacis): María de la Paz (Spanish), Maria da Paz (Portuguese). The name was often assumed, as an approximate translation of the Hebrew personal name Shelomo, by Jews converted to Christianity.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the places named Olmedo in Burgos and Valladolid provinces, from olmedo ‘stand of elm trees’.

Spanish (from Basque): habitational name from Basque Lazkao, a town in Gipuzkoa province.

Spanish: habitational name for someone from Moya, from an adjectival form of the place name.

from a personal name, byname, or nickname, dos Santos (from Spanish Todos los Santos ‘All Saints’, Portuguese Todos os santos), typically bestowed on a child born on All Saints’ Day. in many cases, a habitational name from any of the places named Santos, from the dedication of a local church or shrine to all the saints. This is a very common Portuguese surname.

Spanish: topographic name for someone living by a main road, carrera ‘thoroughfare’, originally a road passable by vehicles as well as pedestrians (Late Latin carraria (via), a derivative of carrum ‘cart’), or a habitational name from any of various places named with this word. Southern Italian: habitational name from a place named Carrera, cognate with 1.

Spanish: Castilianized form of Soutomaior, a habitational name from the name of two places in Pontevedra and Ourense provinces, Galicia, so named from souto ‘grove’, ‘small wood’ + maior ‘larger’, ‘main’.

Southern Italian: from the personal name Cataldo, popularized in the Middle Ages by the cult of Saint Cataldo, an Irish monk and disciple of Saint Carthage, who on returning from a pilgrimage in the Holy Land settled in Taranto.

One who came from La Torre (the tower), the name of several places in Spain; dweller near the tower or spire.An Aragonese name.See De la Torre, Torres.

Catalan: variant of Montcada, a habitational name from any of the places so named in Valencia and Catalonia.

Spanish: nickname from romo ‘snub-nosed’, ‘foreshortened’ (of uncertain etymology, perhaps from Latin rhombus, itself a borrowing from Greek, with reference to the two obtuse angles of this figure).

English: probably a variant of Crandon, a habitational name from Crandon in Somerset or Crandean in Falmer, Sussex. Compare Grandin.

Spanish: habitational name from Viveros, a place in Albacete province, or a Castilianized spelling of Galician Viveiros.

Spanish and Portuguese: topographic name, a plural form of Monte. Dutch: patronymic from a short form of a Germanic compound personal name formed with -mund ‘protection’ as the final element. Compare Raymond.

Spanish: habitational name from Polanco in Santander province.

Basque: habitational name from a town called Garate in Basque Country, or topographic name, possibly from a derivative of Basque gara ‘height’, ‘peak’.

Spanish (Meléndez): variant of Menéndez (see Menendez).

Spanish and Portuguese: habitational name from either of the places called Reinoso, in Burgos and Palencia, apparently from a derivative of reino ‘kingdom’.

Aragonese and Spanish (of Basque origin): habitational name from Urrea de Gaén in Teruel province, or Urrea de Jalón in Zaragoza, of certain Basque influence.

Spanish (Villalón): habitational name from a place in Valladolid province called Villalón de Campos.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the numerous places called Hinojosa, from a derivative of hinojo ‘fennel’. See also Fennell.

Scottish and northern Irish: variant spelling of Miller.

French: nickname for someone with a snub nose, Old French camus.

Basque: habitational name from any of several places in the province of Biscay named with arte ‘holm oak’ + the locative suffix -aga ‘place or group of’.

Spanish and Galician: habitational name from any of the places, mainly in Galicia, called Moscoso, named with an adjectival derivative of mosca ‘fly’, denoting a place where there were many flies.

Spanish: habitational name, probably from Espejo in Córdoba province, or otherwise from one of the minor places so named in Málaga and Araba provinces; the place name is evidently connected with espejo ‘mirror’ (Latin speculum).

Spanish: occupational name from caballero ‘knight’, ‘soldier’, ‘horseman’ (from Late Latin caballarius ‘mounted soldier’).

Spanish: from the medieval personal name Galindo, of predominantly Aragonese origin and distribution, but of unknown etymology.

Spanish: occupational name for a squire, a young man of good birth attendant on a knight, or shield bearer, escudero (medieval Latin scutarius, a derivative of Latin scutum ‘shield’).

Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Móráin ‘descendant of Mórán’, a personal name meaning ‘great’, ‘large’; the stress is normally on the first syllable. English: variant of Morant, normally pronounced with the stress on the second syllable. Spanish (Morán): habitational name from places called Morán in Asturies, Galicia (Pontevedra) and Aragon (Zaragoza).

Catalan (Millà): from a reduced form of a personal name from Latin Aemilianus (see Milian).

Italian: from the personal name Salvo (‘safe’). Catalan (Salvó): possibly from a personal name, a pet form of the Latin personal name Salvus. Spanish and Portuguese: possibly a nickname from salvo ‘saved’.

Spanish: habitational name from Mayorga in Valladolid province (Latin Maiorica).

Galician: probably a variant spelling of Lemos.

Spanish: habitational name from a place called Quevedo, such as Casa de Quevedo in Albacete province.

Andrade: It means "the Galician realm of topônimo" or "reference to the new Jews."Andrade is a surname that appeared in the region of Galicia, this onomástica in the Portuguese language as a name of toponymic origin, ie, based on a region or locality.

Asturian-Leonese, Spanish, and Catalan: habitational name from any of several minor places named Espina (notably in Asturies), from espina ‘thorn’, ‘prickle’, probably applied in the sense ‘thorn bush’.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the places so called.

Spanish and Italian: habitational name from any of the many places named with valle ‘valley’, or topographic name for someone who lived in a valley (Latin vallis). Norwegian: habitational name from any of several farmsteads so named, from Old Norse vollr ‘field’, ‘meadow’.

Spanish: habitational name from Oviedo, Spanish form of Asturian-Leonese Uviéu, name of the regional capital of Asturies, found in early records in the Latin form Ovetum.

Basque: Castilianized form of Basque Gebara, a habitational name from a place in the Basque province of Araba. The origin and meaning of the place name are uncertain; it is recorded in the form Gebala by the geographer Ptolemy in the 2nd century ad. This is a rare name in Spain.

English, Scottish, Irish, French, Dutch, German, Czech, Slovak, Spanish (Martín), Italian (Venice), etc.: from a personal name (Latin Martinus, a derivative of Mars, genitive Martis, the Roman god of fertility and war, whose name may derive ultimately from a root mar ‘gleam’). This was borne by a famous 4th-century saint, Martin of Tours, and consequently became extremely popular throughout Europe in the Middle Ages. As a North American surname, this form has absorbed many cognates from other European forms. English: habitational name from any of several places so called, principally in Hampshire, Lincolnshire, and Worcestershire, named in Old English as ‘settlement by a lake’ (from mere or mær ‘pool’, ‘lake’ + tun ‘settlement’) or as ‘settlement by a boundary’ (from (ge)mære ‘boundary’ + tun ‘settlement’). The place name has been charged from Marton under the influence of the personal name Martin.

English: from Middle English angel ‘angel’ (from Latin angelus), probably applied as a nickname for someone of angelic temperament or appearance or for someone who played the part of an angel in a pageant. As a North American surname it may also be an Americanized form of a cognate European surname, as for example Italian Angelo, Rumanian Anghel, Czech Andel, or Hungarian Angyal. German: ethnic name for a member of a Germanic people on the Jutland peninsula; members of this tribe invaded eastern and northern Britain in the 5th–6th centuries and gave their name to England. See Engel. Slovenian (eastern Slovenia): from the Latin personal name Angelus.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the various places called Lastra in Lugo (Galicia) or Oviedo (Asturias), or La Lastra (numerous places in northern Spain), named with lastra ‘flat slab of rock’.

Portuguese and Galician: habitational name from any of the numerous places in Portugal and Galicia called Moreira, from moreira ‘mulberry tree’.

Spanish (of Basque origin): topographic name from Basque ola ‘forge’ + berri ‘new’ + the definite article -a, or possibly variant form of the habitational name from any of the places in Navarre named Olaberri.

Spanish: probably a topographic name from daza ‘sorghum’. Italian: probably a habitational name from Daza in Messina province, Sicily.

Spanish: probably a metonymic occupational name for a beekeeper, from cerón ‘residue of wax or honeycomb’.

Catalan: from the personal name Coloma, a vernacular form of Latin Columba (see Colomb).

Spanish (Narváez): habitational name from a place so called near Almagro, in Ciudad Real province.

Basque: habitational name from any of several places in the Basque provinces named Ugarte. The first element of place name, ug-, means ‘river’, ‘water’.

probably from farfán, a term denoting one of a group of Spaniards who went to Morocco in the 8th century; there they retained their Christian faith and in 1390 their descendants returned to Spain. in some cases, a habitational name from Farfán in Granada.

Spanish: habitational name from Obando in Extremadura province.

Spanish: nickname for someone descended from a prominent elder in a community or one whose memory was respected, from Spanish nieto ‘grandson’ (Latin nepos, genitive nep(o)tis, ‘grandson’, ‘nephew’).

Spanish: variant of Esquibel.

Asturian-Leonese: probably a habitational name from a place in Asturies called Cuadra.

Spanish: habitational name from Montiel, a place in Ciudad Real province.

Spanish: habitational name from any of various places named Puentes, from the plural of puente ‘bridge’.

Spanish: habitational name from a place in the province of Burgos named Covarrubias. The place name, meaning ‘red caves’, is from the plural of cueva ‘cave’ (Latin cova) + rubio ‘red’ (Latin rubeus).

Spanish and Portuguese: topographic name from chaparro ‘oak bushes’ (used as firewood), from Basque txaparro, or alternatively a nickname from the same word in the sense ‘plump’, ‘chubby’.

Spanish: possibly from negrete, denoting a member of a 15th-century faction based in the mountainous area of Santander.

Spanish: habitational name from the eastern seaport of Cartagena (earlier Carthago Nova) in Murcia province.

Spanish (Cádiz): habitational name from the great seaport of this name in southwestern Spain (earlier Gades), which was founded in the 1st millennium bc by Phoenician colonists from Tyre.

From the latin "sarmentum" - vine shoots. The landmark of the area where the inhabitants were given this name. Place name in Argentina.Galician name descended from knight Salvador González, Count of Bureba.

Spanish and Portuguese: occupational name for a grower or seller of wheat, from Spanish and Portuguese trigo.

French (Labbé): from Old French l’abe(t), ‘the priest’; an occupational name for someone employed in the household of a priest, or in some cases perhaps for the priest himself.

Spanish: from a personal name, from Latin Ascensius ‘ascension’ (see Ascencio).

Irish (Connacht): reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Láimhín, a reduced form of Ó Flaithimhín ‘descendant of Flaithimhín’, a personal name from a diminutive of flaith ‘prince’, ‘ruler’. This name is sometimes translated Hand, from the similarity of the reduced form to lámh ‘hand’. English: from the medieval female personal name Lavin(a) (from Latin Lavinia, of unknown origin) . Spanish (Lavín): habitational name from Lavin, a place so named in the Santander province. Respelling of French Lavigne.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the places called with Vivar, specially from Vivar del Cid, in Burgos province, the place where the medieval warrior Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, also known as El Cid, was born.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the numerous places named Robledo, from robledo ‘oak wood’, a derivative of roble ‘oak’.

Spanish: habitational name from Monroy (‘red mountain’), a place in Cáceres province.

Spanish: habitational name from Lepe in the province of Seville.

Catalan, Portuguese, and Spanish: topographic name from olivera ‘olive tree’. In some cases a Castilianized spelling of Galician Oliveira.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the numerous places named Puebla, meaning ‘settlement’ (Latin popula).

Basque: topographic name for someone who lived on a stony area of land, from Basque arri ‘crag’, ‘rock’, ‘stone’ + the locative suffix -a(t)z ‘abundance of’.

Spanish: habitational name from places called Tamayo in the provinces of Burgos and Albacete.

Portuguese and Spanish: distinguishing name for the eldest son of a family, from Portuguese morgado ‘first-born’, ‘heir’, Late Latin maioricatus, a derivative of maior (see Mayor 2).

Asturian-Leonese and Spanish: habitational name from any of the towns called Nova in Albacete or Asturies. Galician: literally ‘new’, probably a habitational name from a place named Vila Nova. Italian: unexplained.

Spanish: variant of Obando.

English: variant of Raine. German: topographic name from Middle High German rein ‘margin’, ‘boundary’, or a habitational name from a place in Bavaria named with this word.

Spanish (Frías) and Portuguese: habitational name from any of various places, for example in the provinces of Burgos and Teruel, so called from the feminine plural form of the adjective frío ‘cold’ (Latin frigidus); a noun such as aguas ‘waters’ or fuentes ‘springs’ has been lost.

Galician: topographic name for someone who lived by a beech tree or in a beech wood, from Late Latin fagea (arbor) ‘beech (tree)’, a derivative of classical Latin fagus ‘beech’.

Spanish: from infante literally ‘child’, but in Spain also a title borne by the eldest sons of noblemen before they inherited, and in particular by the son of the king of Castile; thus the surname probably originated either as a nickname for one of a lordly disposition or as an occupational name for a member of the household of an infante. Italian: nickname for someone with a childlike disposition, from infante ‘child’ (Latin infans, literally ‘one who cannot speak’).

Spanish and Galician: nickname for a tough, hard-headed individual, from cerna ‘heartwood’. Hungarian (Cérna): from the cérna ‘thread’, hence an metonymic occupational name for a tailor. Czech and Slovak (Cerna): nickname from the feminine form of Czech cerný , Slovak cierny ‘black’, ‘dark’.

Galician and Asturian-Leonese: habitational name from either of two places named Navia, in Galicia and Asturies.

Aymara (or possibly also Quechua): Castilianized variant of Qhispi, most probably a nickname from Aymara qhispi ‘glass’, ‘precious stone’ (or from Quechua qhispi umiña ‘diamond’). This name is mainly found in Bolivia and Peru.

Spanish and Galician: habitational name from any of the places in Galicia, Santander, and Cáceres named Rivero, from ribero ‘bank’, ‘shore’ (Late Latin riparium, a derivative of ripa ‘bank’).

Portuguese and Galician: occupational name for a friar, or a nickname for a pious person or someone employed at a monastery, from Latin frater ‘brother’.

This word seems like a variation of "sotero" which means "Salvador" or savior.Galician name.

Spanish and Italian: from a personal name, in origin an ethnic name for a Frank, a member of the Germanic people who inhabited the lands around the river Rhine in Roman times. See also Frank. The personal name was popularized by the cult of San Franco di Assergi. Italian and Spanish: nickname or status name from franco ‘free’ (usually denoting a freed slave). Jewish (Sephardic): adoption of the Spanish surname.

nickname for someone with a peculiarity of the neck, cuello (Latin collum). Castilianized form of Asturian-Leonese Cuellu, a habitational name from a place in Asturies called Cuellu.

Variant spelling of Basque Eraso, a habitational name from any of the places in Navarre, Basque Country, so named, from Basque ira, era ‘fern’, ‘bracken’ + the suffix -so indicating abundance.

Spanish: habitational name from any of various minor places named Manzano, or a topographic name for someone who lived by an apple tree or orchard, from Spanish manzano ‘apple tree’, Old Spanish maçano, from maçana ‘apple’, Late Latin (mala) Mattiana, a type of apple named in honor of the 1st century bc horticultural writer Gaius Matius.

Spanish and Portuguese: from duque ‘duke’ (from Latin dux, genitive ducis ‘leader’), an occupational name for someone who worked in the household of a duke, or as a nickname for someone who gave himself airs and graces. French (also Duqué): nickname from duquet, a diminutive of French duc ‘duke’ (see Duchon).

Spanish (Chavarría): variant of Echevarria.

Spanish: habitational name from a place called Iglesias (from the plural of iglesia ‘church’), in particular the one in Burgos province.

German: from a pet form of Friedrich. It is also found as a surname in Denmark, Sweden, and elsewhere.

Spanish: generally an approving (or ironic) nickname, from Spanish bueno ‘good’.

Spanish: habitational name from Villavicencio de los Caballeros, a place in Valladolid province, named from villa ‘(outlying) farm’, ‘(dependent) settlement’ + the personal name Vicencio.

Spanish and Italian: from the personal name (Latin Ascensius), favored by the early Christians, by whom it was bestowed with reference to the ascension of Christ (Late Latin ascensio).

Asturian-Leonese: habitational name from a parish in Siero, in Asturies.

Spanish: unexplained.

Spanish: habitational name from a Castilianized form of Basque Plaentzia a town in Gipuzkoa, Basque Country, also known as Soraluze.

Spanish: variant spelling of Ledesma.

Spanish (of Basque origin; Mújica): habitational name from Basque Muxika, in Biscay province, Basque Country.

variant of Rolando. habitational name from either of two towns named Roldán, in Murcia province.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the numerous places named Valverde ‘green valley’.

Spanish (of Basque origin): Castilianized form of the Basque personal name Otxoa, equivalent of Latin lupus ‘wolf’.

Portuguese (Espíndola): of uncertain origin, but possibly a topographic name. It was taken to Portugal by an immigrant family from Genoa, Italy.

Spanish (Macías) and Portuguese: from a variant of the personal name Matías (see Matthew).

Basque: habitational name from any of various places, for example in the province of Araba, Basque Country, so named from the plural of Late Latin heredium ‘hereditary estate’ (a derivative of heres), i.e. one that could be passed on to the heirs of its tenant instead of reverting to the overlord.

Spanish: from the personal name Alonso, a cognate of Alfonso.

Spanish: from monje ‘monk’ (a loanword from Old Occitan, from Latin monachus). Compare Monge.

Basque: habitational name from Ugalde in Araba province. The first element of place name is ug- meaning ‘river’, ‘water’.

Spanish: habitational name from a place in the province of Logroño, so called from a North Castilian form of Spanish faro ‘beacon’. French (Normandy): metonymic occupational name for a peddler, from an Old French cry used to hail someone or to attract attention.

Basque: topographic name for someone who lived between two or more settlements, from Basque iri ‘settlement’ , ‘village’ + arte ‘between’.

Spanish: topographic name from a collective form of escoba ‘broom’ (Late Latin scopa), or a habitational name from either of two minor places in Santander province called Escobedo.

Spanish and Portuguese (Júlio), and Italian: from the personal name Julio, a vernacular form of Latin Julius.

Galician: nickname from puga ‘thorn’, ‘prickle’, probably in the figurative sense ‘sharp’, ‘clever’.

from the personal name Velasco, Belasco, formed with Basque bel- ‘raven’ + the diminutive suffix -sco. in some cases possibly a habitational name from any of various places in Logroño, Soria, and Seville provinces named Velasco.

Galician: habitational name from any of the several placed named Mera in Galicia. Romanian: habitational name for someone from the village of Mera (Hungarian Méra) in Transylvania.

English, French, and Italian (Venetia): from a personal name derived from the Latin personal name Vitalis (see Vitale). The name became common in England after the Norman Conquest both in its learned form Vitalis and in the northern French form Viel.

Spanish: habitational name from Bonilla in Cuenca province or Bonilla de la Sierra in Ávila province.

Spanish: habitational name from Villena, a town in southeastern Spain.

Spanish and Portuguese: topographic for someone who lived on a corner, canto ‘corner’ (from Latin cantus), or a habitational name from numerous places in Spain and Portugal named with this word. Catalan (Cantó): habitational name from any of the minor places in Catalonia named Cantó, from Catalan cantó ‘stone’, derived from the pre-Latin form cant-.

Spanish: habitational name from a Pantoja in Toledo.

German (Müller) and Jewish (Ashkenazic): see Mueller. Dutch: variant of Mulder.

Spanish (Crisostomo): from the personal name, a derivative of Greek Khrysostomos, literally ‘mouth of gold’. This was the nickname of St. John Chrysostom (4th century ad), a prominent theologian, and one of the four Fathers of the Eastern Church.

nickname for someone supposedly resembling an ox, manzo (from Late Latin mansus ‘tame’ (see Manso), with a particular sense of an ox tamed to the plow), or metonymic occupational name for someone who worked with oxen. nickname from manso ‘gentle’, ‘mild’ (from the same Late Latin word as 1). possibly from a Germanic personal name formed with magin ‘strength’, ‘might’. Compare Main.

Spanish: probably a nickname for someone with long limbs, from Spanish tirado ‘stretched’ (past participle of tirar ‘to pull’).

Spanish: habtational name of any of the many places called (Los) Corrales, plural of Corral, plural of Corral.

English: occupational name for a transporter of goods, Middle English cartere, from an agent derivative of Middle English cart(e) or from Anglo-Norman French car(e)tier, a derivative of Old French caret (see Cartier). The Old French word coalesced with the earlier Middle English word cart(e) ‘cart’, which is from either Old Norse kartr or Old English cræt, both of which, like the Late Latin word, were probably originally derived from Celtic. Northern Irish: reduced form of McCarter.

Spanish and Galician: variant of Viedma, a habitational name from any of the places called with Viedma.

variant of Merry 3, or from a short form of the personal name Aimery (see Emery). habitational name from places in Ardennes, Aube, Calvados, Marne, and Val-d’Oise, all derived from the same Gallo-Roman name as Merry 4.

nickname for an old man or someone with prematurely white hair, from cano ‘white or gray haired’, ‘old’, ‘worthy’ (Latin canus). habitational name from a place in Spain called Caño or Cano in Portugal, both named with a derivative of Latin canna ‘reed’.

Spanish (Canary Islands) and Portuguese: from Béthencourt (see Bettencourt), the name (with many variants) of the first conqueror of the Canary Islands (1417), a knight of Norman-French origin. This name is also common and widespread in Latin America.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the places named Portilla, from a diminutive of porta ‘gate’.

Spanish: habitational name, from the name of a mountain and an ancient city in the province of Burgos, probably derived from Basque amai ‘end’ + the article suffix -a. Japanese: usually written with characters meaning ‘heavenly valley’. It is pronounced Amaya or Amagai in eastern Japan and Amatani in western Japan.

Spanish: habitational name from any of numerous places named Higuera, from higuera ‘fig tree’ (Latin ficaria).

Italian and Spanish: from the personal name Severino (see Severin).

Spanish: topographic name for someone who lived by an oak wood, from a Castilianized form of Galician landeiros, from landeiro ‘oak producing many acorns’.

Spanish (Terán): habitational name from Terán in Santander province.

Spanish: habitational name from various places named with banda, probably in the sense ‘side’, ‘edge’, ‘part’. Hungarian: of uncertain origin; probably from the old secular personal name Bán. Jewish (from Poland): metonymic occupational name from Polish banda ‘ribbon’. In some instances, perhaps an altered spelling of German and Dutch Bande (see Band). Croatian or Serbian: nickname for a bandit, from banda ‘band’, ‘gang’. This name originates from the Kordun and Krajina region on the former border between Croatia and Bosnia.

Spanish and Catalan: variant (plural) of Casa. The Catalan form is a respelling (probably Castilianization) of Catalan Cases.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the places called Pedraza, especially those in the provinces of Palencia, Salamanca, and Segovia.

Spanish (of Basque origin): habitational name from Orozco in Bilbao province.

habitational name from any of the places named Salvatierra (literally ‘save land’). This is a widespread place name, denoting a place of strategic importance. Castilianized form of Galician Salvaterra or Aragonese Salbatierra, habitational names from places in Galicia and Aragon.

Spanish: habitational name from any of numerous places named Salcedo, so named from a collective form of salce ‘willow tree’. Compare Salce. Spanish: Castilianized variant of Basque Saratsu, a habitational name from a town so named, in Araba, Basque Country.

Catalan (Abelló): nickname from a derivative of abella ‘bee’ (see Abella).

Galician, Asturian-Leonese, Spanish, and Basque: habitational name from any of numerous places in Galicia, Asturies, León, Santander, and Basque Country named with the topographical term cueto ‘hill’, ‘fortified settlement’ (from Latin cautus ‘sheltered’. The Asturian-Leonese form is a Castilianized variant of the Asturian-Leonese habitational name Cuetu (compare Coto)

English, Welsh, and Scottish: variant of Morris. Dutch and North German: variant of Moritz. French: variant of Maurice. Latvian: nickname for a dark person, from Moris ‘Moor’, ‘Negro’. Compare Moore 2. Lithuanian: possibly a nickname from mory~s ‘lazy person’.

Catalan: occupational name for a blacksmith or a worker in iron, from Latin ferrarius. This is the commonest Catalan surname. English: variant of Farrar.

Spanish: either a nickname for someone with a big head, from cabeza ‘head’ (Late Latin capitia), or a topographic name from any of the numerous minor places named with this word, which was commonly used to denote a small hill.

Spanish (Bermúdez): patronymic from Bermudo, a Germanic (Visigothic) personal name of uncertain etymology.

Galician and Spanish: possibly a variant spelling of Vieira. In Spain the surname is found mainly in the island of Tenerife.

Spanish: from the personal name Jaime, Spanish equivalent of James.

Catalan: habitational name from any of the numerous places so named, from Catalan roca ‘rock’. This name is also Occitan.

Basque: topographic name from Basque loa ‘mud’, ‘mire’, with the suffix -tza denoting abundance. This name is now well established in Mexico and Colombia.

Italian: from the Germanic personal name Rocco, which was borne by a 14th-century saint from Montpellier remembered for his miraculous healings during an outbreak of the plague in northern Italy. The etymology of the name is uncertain (see Roch).

Galician: topographic name meaning ‘the field’, from the Galician definite article o (masculine singular) + campo ‘field’ (Latin campus), or habitational name from a town of this name in Lugo province, Galicia.

Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese: of uncertain and multiple origin. In part at least, it is from the Germanic personal name Amalric, introduced to northern Italy by the Lombards and to the Iberian peninsula by the Visigoths. In Sicily, it is from a nickname meaning ‘bitter’, ‘unlucky’, or ‘disappointed’ or from an Arabic personal name ‘Ammar. In Portugal, it is from a personal name Amaro, of disputed origin.

Spanish (Cuéllar): habitational name from a place called Cuéllar in Segovia province, or from minor places so named in the provinces of Soria and Salamanca.

Surname with a probable prothetic S, which in epigraphic ancient documents and inscriptions represented "sacerdote" or "priest" originally from Arabia. Name of village in Villagrán, Guanajuato in Mexico.It is a Castilian surname from Soria, which spread to Chile from the Order of Santiago starting in 1628.

Spanish: probably variant of Valdivielso, habitational name from Valdivielso, a region in Burgos province.

Spanish: nickname for an elegant or haughty person, from lozano ‘splendid’, later ‘good-looking’.

Spanish: from an old form of the personal name Olivero (see Oliver).

Basque: variant of Asua, a habitational name from Asua, in Biscay province, or possibly a topographic name from Basque (h)artsu ‘stony’.

Spanish (Carrión): habitational name from a place of this name in the Spanish province of Ciudad Real, or from Carrión de los Céspedes in Seville, or Carrión de los Condes in Palencia.

English: occupational name for a worker in metal, from Middle English smith (Old English smið, probably a derivative of smitan ‘to strike, hammer’). Metal-working was one of the earliest occupations for which specialist skills were required, and its importance ensured that this term and its equivalents were perhaps the most widespread of all occupational surnames in Europe. Medieval smiths were important not only in making horseshoes, plowshares, and other domestic articles, but above all for their skill in forging swords, other weapons, and armor. This is the most frequent of all American surnames; it has also absorbed, by assimilation and translation, cognates and equivalents from many other languages (for forms, see Hanks and Hodges 1988).

Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian: nickname for a bald-headed man, from calvo ‘bald’ (Latin calvus).

variant of Basque Osa or Otsa, habitational name from a town in Navarre province. possibly also a habitational name from a place called Ossa de Montiel in Albacete province, Spain.

Spanish and Italian: from Spanish, Italian corona ‘crown’ (Latin corona ‘garland’, ‘chaplet’, ‘diadem’), perhaps applied as a habitational name for someone who lived in a house with this sign, or as a nickname for someone who had a tonsure in fulfillment of a religious vow or who had influence and power. Italian: from the female personal name Corona, of the same derivation as 1.

Spanish (D’Ávila): habitational name for someone from Ávila (see Avila). Galician and Portuguese (da Vila): topographic name for someone ‘from the village (vila)’.

Spanish: habitational name from any of several places named Villar(r)eal, from Spanish villa ‘(outlying) farmstead’, ‘(dependent) settlement’ + real ‘royal’ (Latin regalis), as for example Villarreal de San Carlos in Cáceres. The places were so named from having some particular connection with the Crown. in some cases, variant of Catalan Vila-real, from the town named Vila-real in Castelló de la Plana provinve.

Spanish: from the personal name Cayo, Spanish equivalent of Gaetano. possibly also from the Castilianized form of Asturian-Leonese Cayu, a habitational name from either of two places in Asturies named El Cayu.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the numerous places (in Cáceres, Gran Canaria, and Toledo) named Tejeda, from a collective form of tejo ‘yew tree’ (Latin taxus).

Spanish: habitational name from any of several places called Murillo, notably in Navarre, Logroño, and Zaragoza provinces, so named from a diminutive of muro ‘wall’.

Spanish (Téllez): patronymic from the medieval personal name Tellus, probably of Germanic origin.

Spanish: probably a habitational name from any of various places, mainly in southern Spain, named La Mesa, from Latin mensa ‘table’, with reference to a topographic feature.

Spanish form of Basque Aldai, a habitational name from any of several places in the Basque country called Alday or Aldai, from Basque alde ‘side’, ‘slope’. Americanized form of German Aldag. English: variant spelling of Allday.

Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese, Dutch, and German: from the personal name Gil, from French Gille(s), from Latin Aegidius (see Giles). German: from Slavic gil ‘bullfinch’, probably a nickname for a simpleton.

Basque: habitational name from a town called Aldana in Biscay province, Basque Country, or topographic name from Basque alde ‘side’, ‘slope’. The ending -ana is common in Basque place names; its meaning is vague: apparently no more than ‘place’.

Spanish: variant (plural) of Calleja.

Spanish: from the personal name Rogel, Spanish form of French Roger. German: of uncertain origin; perhaps a nickname for a mischievous person, from Middle High German rogel ‘loose’. Slovenian: nickname or topographic name from rogelj ‘horn’, ‘point’, as a topographic name probably denoting someone who lived on a horn-shaped spur or ridge of a hill or on a pointed piece of land.

Spanish (Saldívar; from Basque): Castilianized variant of Basque Zaldibar, a habitational name from a place so named in Biscay province. The place name is of uncertain derivation: it may be from zaldu ‘wood’, ‘copse’ or from zaldi ‘horse’ + ibar ‘water meadow’, ‘fertile plain’.

Spanish (Alcántara): habitational name from any of various places, for example in the provinces of Cáceres, Cádiz, or Castilianized form of Catalan Alcàntera, habitational name from a town in Valencia, all of them named from Arabic al ‘the’ + qan?tara ‘bridge’.

Spanish: habitational name from a place in Santoña in Santander province, whose name derives from escala ‘ladder’ (Latin scala), referring to a terraced slope.

Surname common in Vizcaya, and name of principal city there. Meaning unknown.Bilbao could mean the "desembocadura del río," or the mouth of the river.Basque name of toponymic origin. Members belonged to Order of Santiago.

Basque: topographic or habitational name, from artza ‘abundance of stones’ (from (h)arri ‘stone’) + -ola ‘place’, ‘hut’, ‘cabin’.

Spanish (Albarrán): nickname or occupational name from medieval Spanish albarrán ‘foreigner’, ‘alien’, also ‘chief herdsman or shepherd’ (from Arabic al- ‘the’ + barrani ‘outside’, from barra ‘out’ or barr ‘land’, ‘open country’).

Galician: from any of the places in Galicia called Peredo (‘pear tree orchard’; compare Pereda).

Spanish: from a diminutive of Delgado.

topographic name for someone who lived on a slope or river bank, or on the coast (ultimately from Latin costa ‘rib’, ‘side’, ‘flank’, also used in a transferred topographical sense), or a habitational name from any of numerous places named Costa or named with this word. of Greek origin (see Costas).

Spanish: nickname for a left-handed man, from Spanish izquierdo ‘left’ (a word of pre-Roman origin, akin to Basque ezker).

Portuguese: from an irregular derivative, of uncertain significance, of Pimenta.

Spanish, Portuguese, and northern Italian: nickname for a man with curly hair, from Latin crispus ‘curly-haired’.

Galician: probably a habitational name from Tenorio in Pontevedra province, Galicia.

Spanish: variant of Abrego.

Spanish and Jewish (Sephardic): habitational name for an inhabitant of Soria in Castile, from the adjective soriano ‘from Soria’. Southern Italian: habitational name from Soriano Calabro in Vibo Valentia province or Soriano nel Cimino in Viterbo, or of the same derivation as 1.

Spanish: variant of Galician Quinteiro, a habitational name from Quintero in Ourense province, Galicia, so named from quinteiro ‘farmstead’.

Found in Vizcaya. Could be misspelling of surname "Arteaga" (see). Could also derive from Spanish "artigar" whose source is the latin "exarticare." If correct, means to conquer or defeat on open ground, i.e., a warrior or group of warriors who won engage­ment by fighting in open field.

Japanese: ornamental name, now rare in Japan, from mura ‘village’; listed in the Shinsen shojiroku. Occurrences in America probably originated in the Ryukyu Islands, or may be shortened forms of other names containing this word. French: according to Morlet, a topographic name from a dialect variant of mure ‘ruined wall(s)’, from mur ‘wall’, Latin murus, or a habitational name from places called La Mure in Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, Isère, Rhône, and Puy-de-Dôme. Italian (southern Sardinia): topographic name or nickname from Sardinian mura ‘mulberry’ or ‘blackberry’. Catalan: habitational name from Mura in Barcelona. Czech and Slovak: from Muric, a personal name equivalent to Maurice (see Morris).

Spanish: possibly a variant of Cosio.

Spanish: from palomino ‘squab’, ‘young pigeon’, a derivative of paloma ‘dove’.

Spanish (also Mexico): variant spelling of Betancourt.

Spanish (from Basque): habitational name from Maya del Baztán in Navarre province, from Basque Amaiur. Catalan: variant spelling of Maià, habitational name from Maià de Montcal and other places (see Maia)

Spanish (Góngora) from Basque: habitational name from Basque Gongora, a place in the Aranguren valley in Navarre, Basque Country.

Spanish, Catalan, and French: nickname for a red-haired person, from a variant of rosel(l), a diminutive of ros ‘red’.

Spanish (Obregón): habitational name from Obregón in Santander province.

Swedish: probably an ornamental name composed of the place name element mel from Old Norse meðal ‘mid(dle)’ + the common surname suffix -(l)in, from Latin -(l)inius. French: from a short form of the personal name Amelin. French: habitational name from places in Haute-Saône and Côte d’Or, all named with the dialect word melin ‘mill’, from Latin molinum. Breton: topographic name for someone who lived at a mill or an occupational nickname for a miller, from milin, melin ‘mill’. Czech (Melín): derivative of the personal name Melichar (see Melchior). Slovenian (eastern Slovenia): unexplained.

Catalan and Portuguese: from horta ‘garden’ (Latin hortus), hence a topographic name for someone who lived by an enclosed garden or a metonymic occupational name for a gardener.

Spanish, Aragonese, Asturian-Leonese: habitational name from any of the places named Solano (Burgos and Málaga provinces) or El Solano (Asturies, and Uesca, Aragon), named with solano ‘place exposed to the sun’ (Late Latin solanum, a derivative of sol ‘sun’). Spanish and Portuguese: from a personal name adopted in honor of Francisco Solano, a 17th-century missionary to South America. Italian: possibly also from the personal name adopted in honor of Francisco Solano.

Spanish: topographic name from Spanish collado ‘hill’, ‘mountain pass’, from Late Latin collatum, a derivative of Latin collis ‘hill’.

Spanish (Negrón) and French: variant of Negro.

Basque: variant of Gernika, a habitational name from Guernica in Biscay, Basque Country.

Portuguese and Spanish: from a personal name, bestowed especially on children born on or around the Feast of the Epiphany (6 January), Spanish Aparición, which celebrates the appearance of Christ to the Magi. The Spanish vocabulary word aparición means ‘appearance’ or ‘manifestation’. In Portugal and Spain, however, this is found as a forenames only, not a surname.

Italian and Spanish: from Italian lovera, Spanish lobera ‘wolf pack’ or ‘wolves’ lair’. In Spain this family name, also spelled Lobera, is also a habitational name from any of several places called Lobera or La Lobera.

Spanish (also Póveda): habitational name from any of the places called Poveda, in the provinces of Cuenca, Ávila, Salamanca, and Soria, or from Póveda de la Sierra in Guadalajara.

Spanish: habitational name from any of various places in Burgos, Lleón, and Santander named Vallejo, from a diminutive of valle ‘valley’.

Spanish: topographic name for someone who lived near an enclosure for livestock, corral. There are numerous places named with this word, in both the singular and plural forms, and to a large extent the surname is a habitational name from these.

German and Jewish (Ashkenazic): occupational name from Middle High German smit, German Schmied ‘blacksmith’. The German surname is found in many other parts of Europe, from Slovenia to Sweden.

Southern Italian: from a feminine form of Matto. Slovak: from the personal name Matúš, Slovak form of Matthew. Hindu and Sikh name of unknown meaning, found among people from Sind, Pakistan.